Charges filed in trunk smuggling deaths

The migrants from Guanajuato pronounced dead

Two bodies were found in the trunk of a car at the San Ysidro border crossing Tuesday. The car was taken into a secondary inspection area where investigators examined the car. Here investigators examine an orange Dodge Challenger.
— John Gastaldo / U-T San Diego

Two bodies were found in the trunk of a car at the San Ysidro border crossing Tuesday. The car was taken into a secondary inspection area where investigators examined the car. Here investigators examine an orange Dodge Challenger.
— John Gastaldo / U-T San Diego

SAN YSIDRO  A U.S. citizen arrested in a smuggling attempt that ended in the deaths of two Mexican men confessed that he was to be paid $3,500 to take the immigrants through the border in his trunk, authorities said.

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged Nicholas George Zakov, 41, with violating immigration law, specifically failing to present the two men to immigration authorities. Zakov pleaded not guilty in San Diego federal court. He dabbed at his eyes with a paper towel and appeared distraught as the charge was read aloud.

The two unauthorized immigrants were identified as Tarcisio Casas Blanco, 28, and Jose Aurelio Quiroz Casas, 20. Both were from the state of Guanajuato, according to the Mexican Consulate in San Diego; it was unclear whether they were related. Both had previously been voluntarily removed from the United States, a U.S. prosecutor said.

A court document says Zakov told authorities he was driving the men to a Denny’s in Chula Vista, and was to receive payment once he got them into the United States. Zakov said that he coordinated the smuggling arrangements with three different men while in Mexico, the court records state.

The discovery of migrants hidden inside vehicles crossing at the ports is not a new phenomenon, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. Inspectors have found individuals hidden in gas tanks, under seats, in the dashboard area, under floorboards, even sewn into a seat, she said.

“In the summertime, when it’s hot and the lines are long, smuggling activity in hidden compartments is even more dangerous,” Mack said.

The phenomenon peaked in the 1990s, and incidents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry have been declining in recent years, she said.

Fatalities in such smuggling cases are extremely rare: “In six years that I’ve been here, this is the first case I’ve seen,” said Remedios Gomez Arnau, head of the Mexican Consulate in San Diego.

Consular officials stationed at the border were immediately made aware of the incident on Tuesday, and were able to contact family members of both men in the United States, she said. In the older man’s case, it was a wife, and in the younger one’s a brother.

The vehicle came to the attention of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Zakov, who lives in the Los Angeles area, was stopped as he drove into the United States through the primary vehicle lanes at San Ysidro. He showed a valid U.S. passport card and told the inspector that he had nothing to declare, but he was randomly referred for secondary inspection, authorities said. The vehicle was then scanned through an X-ray machine, showing anomalies in the trunk area, according to court records.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer opened the trunk and found the two men.

One was not breathing while the second appeared to be breathing slightly, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat. Both were taken to hospitals and pronounced dead.